“Unbounded” by Abhayanand, who retired as DGP of Bihar after a long and illustrious career of 37 years, stands as an exception to this rule. It chronicles the rather unique journey of a man who could have been a renowned physicist but ended up becoming a stupendously successful police officer. A lesser mortal would have retired content and happy at the pinnacle of his professional glory. But Abhayanand was to script yet another success story that almost overwhelms his sterling police career.
The journey of a “could have been physicist turned police officer” reaches its zenith in the seemingly contradictory avatar of a teacher and mentor. His passion for physics combines with the dormant teacher in him to produce a passionate teacher whose selfless zeal would end up benefiting countless bright yet underprivileged students through the “Super 30”.
The book entices one to delve further with the intriguing title, “Unbounded: My Experiments with Law, Physics, Policing and Super 30”. And then the deeply evocative dedication, “To the constables of Bihar Police, in whose lap I spent my childhood, and the people of Bihar who protected me from the whims and fancies of politicians in power”, not only sets the tone of the book but also gives an insight into the persona of the author. This rare empathy that Abhayanand has for the constables and the common man is amply demonstrated throughout the book.
His avatar as a teacher gets only one chapter which he tellingly titles as “The Interregnum Called Super 30” even though it is this aspect of his personality which is a continuing story and which has silently shaped the future of hundreds of students and transformed the economic conditions of their families. That an humble beginning could bring about large scale societal change is so rare that it often does not even register. This needed a bit more space than a mere chapter but probably the limitations of length relegated it to the status of “also ran” in the book. More about Super 30 and how it is even today changing the social landscape of Bihar (and other places) later.
A memoir penned by a retired IPS officer would, but naturally, be about his journey in police service and a major portion of this book too is related to his various experiences and his experiments as a police officer. Indeed if there was one constant in Abhayanand’s journey as a police officer it was his unshakeable faith in the power of law and his constant efforts to experiment with the nuances of law creatively.
Law is your weapon as well as your shield; how you apply it is your ingenuity
The physicist in Abhayanand always led him to delve deep into any problem and to come up with novel solutions without ever transgressing the strict boundaries of law. In his very first stint as a Superintendent of Police (SP) in the newly created district of Madhepura he was confronted by the problem of professional criminals indulging in criminal activities while being out on bail in some earlier offence. This a common enough problem where the entire criminal justice system is gamed by an intricate web of fake (non existent) people who get certified by lawyers and they become bailors of a criminal. The criminal is then merrily out of jail and is free to indulge in further criminal activity.
And no punitive action can be taken against the bailors because they just do not exist!! Abhayanand decided to confront the problem in a novel way and he moved the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) for action against those lawyers who had certified the non-existent bailors. As a young SP, the author debated it out with the CJM on the finer aspects of law and convinced him that this was well within the purview of law. To cut a long story short, the net result was that this nexus was broken and no longer were fake bailors certified by lawyers specially in more heinous crimes like dacoity, robbery etc. This had a salutary effect and, in a few months, dacoities stopped altogether in an area which had hitherto been infested with this menace. And even though Abhayanand had moved against the lawyers, the bar association organised a farewell function for him when he was transferred. Even his superiors were taken by surprise by this audacious and bold move by a young SP and despite their initial scepticism they were convinced of the efficacy of this experiment.
It was novel and successful experiments like these that remained constant throughout his career. Whether it was his innovative use of Sec 110 of Criminal Procedure Code; or his daring actions against Left Wing Extremists (Naxalites in common parlance); or incisive insights into how the siphoning of govt revenue could be creatively plugged; or the innovative use of past voting data to ensure free and fair elections each new posting saw the emergence of some new experiment with law. While his experiments kept changing with each new challenge, the one constant feature of Abhayanand’s policing career was his effort to always look at the larger picture and hit against the economics of crime.
Crime generates black money; it fuels crime
If experiments with law remained a constant in Abhayanand’s career so did his passion for hitting against the economics of crime. As a young police officer, he was agonised over the property crimes where cases are closed after recovering an insignificantly small part of the looted property, which is then played as a success story for his seniors and subordinates alike. Where did the rest go? Who are the beneficiaries of the major part of the loot? These questions bothered him.
With the passage of time he was able to observe some connection between this missing share of the loot and the ill-gotten wealth in the society. A pattern could be discerned. Blue collared criminals would graduate into white collared ones. And he rued the fact that as a police officer he was tasked to protect this ill-gotten wealth without even questioning its provenance.
He had the courage of conviction to believe that “every crime is essentially an economic activity” and looked at the larger picture while striking against the source of wealth of organised criminal gangs. He remained convinced that extortion and kidnapping etc were just tools employed by organised gangs to create terror and to thus have a free reign in their larger economic pursuits.
Whether it was his successful move against ‘fake sureties” in Madhepura; his popular efforts to cripple the economic back bone of Left-Wing Extremists or his audacious move to strike against the very source of illegal wealth of kidnapper gangs in Bettiah, the one central feature of Abhayanand’s policing career was his unrelenting focus on the “economics of crime”. Even though each experiment was a saga of success in its own right it was still only sporadic and person specific.
It was only towards the end of his career that he could implement his ideas of striking a serious blow against black money. Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) which came into existence in 2002 was his only ray of hope. But police has been assigned no power or role in the execution of PMLA. Only Enforcement Directorate (ED) is empowered under PMLA to initiate action against an offender. Even though his best efforts to get some role or power assigned to the State police under PMLA failed, his indomitable spirit and his razor-sharp scientific mind never gave up. He kept looking for a way out of this conundrum.
The process was tortuous and convoluted yet he pursued it with vigour and got Bihar Police to gather data against organised criminal gangs. ED was approached by the police and requested to initiate action. With the help of this data ED could start the process of confiscation of properties and assets of the gangsters.
Criminal gangs were stunned with this onslaught from totally unexpected quarters. With their assets confiscated they lost their source of societal acceptance and power. The Economic Offences Unit of Bihar was his brainchild. This unit was created to check black money and became the nodal agency for coordinating the efforts of State police with the ED. “Police ka rutba aur wardi ki gundagardi mein bahut fark nahi hota hai. Rutba hoga to kanoon ka” (Enforcing the power of police is no different from hooliganism in uniform. Power has to be only of Law, not of Police).
This was the blunt and forthright retort of Abhayanand when the new CM of Bihar, Nitish Kumar suggested, “Police ka rutba bahaal karwa dijiye (Restore the status and power of the police), and things will improve immediately.” The CM was desperate to end the prevailing “jungle raj” for this was the promise that had catapulted him to power. He was willing to enact special laws and to give extra funds to the police department.
Abhayanand, however, told him that neither was needed as the existing laws were sufficient for crime control an that implementing the law does not require a huge capital. And soon enough, with no special laws and no extra funding a silent revolution took place which metamorphosed the “jungle raj” into “sushasan” (good governance) and helped earn the CM the moniker of “sushasan babu”!
The methodology employed was simplicity itself. He concentrated on cases under the Arms Act due to the simple reasons that
- almost all crimes are committed with the help of firearms;
- almost all criminals are arrested at least once with illegal firearms; and
- all witnesses in these cases are police officers thus making the trial easier.
Without any detailed written orders, trials under the Arms Act gained a sudden momentum and within one month criminals were convicted in 25 cases. Soon this became a deluge and as more and more criminals started getting convicted there was a stunned silence in their ranks. They just did not understand how this seemingly benign law was being used so effectively to put them behind bars (and thus out of circulation). Majesty of Law was now shining in Bihar and criminals started fearing the law. Bihar was now shedding the dark days of ‘Jungle Raj’ and entering the era of ‘Sushasan’ riding on the simple concept of ‘speedy trial’. There were problems in implementation, no doubt, but each problem was tackled with the aid of existing legal provisions and efforts were made to coordinate and streamline the working of all three wings of the Criminal Justice System. This was a hard and painstaking job, but its impact was directly felt by the common man who suffered under a system where he was often deprived of justice. “The right signal in the right measure to the right quarters of society was instantly sent,” Abhayanand writes.
The Interregnum Called Super 30
The author has termed it as an interregnum but it is the considered opinion of this reviewer that this is arguably his most precious achievement which by now has transformed countless lives. Like all the other experiments of Abhayanand, this experiment too is rooted in simplicity. The concept is simple enough … select 30 bright students from the under privileged sections of society, place them together in a no-frills environment, take care of their basic boarding and lodging expenses and channelise their sharp minds into a single minded pursuit of a defined goal.
Super 30 is a concept that came into existence in 2002 when Abhayanand joined hands with a young mathematician. 30 bright students from the underprivileged sections of society were selected annually through a rigorous examination process. They were put up in a remote corner of Patna and their basic needs of food and shelter were taken care of. A thoughtfully designed syllabi challenged their sharp minds on a daily basis and they were constantly stimulated to strive for perfection. Results were soon evident and in the few years that this original Super 30 quite a few of these bright youngsters found themselves getting enrolled in IITs and NITs. Unfortunately, this noble experiment did not last long when due to a clash between “profession and passion” the author parted ways and bid a sad good bye to Super 30.
Noble ideas do not remain dormant for long though. Soon the author was approached by a well-meaning Muslim politician (Maulana Wali Rahmani) with the request to start a Super 30 for bright children of his community. “The candid and forthright manner of the Maulana left me no option but to accept his request with great pleasure”, says the author. Rahmani 30 came into existence in 2008. Today, it is a well established organisation and is helping students of the Muslim community to compete in national level competition without seeking any special concessions. Many found their way into the IITs and NITs as expected.
Soon after Magadh Super 30 came into existence. Through the flame of education a “silent and bloodless revolution” is underway today in the entire Magadh region which used to be beset with the problem of Left Wing Extremism (Naxalism). There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the success of Magadh Super 30 has galvanised the entire region and helped in the almost total eradication of Naxalites from the area.
Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), the Maharatna PSU was soon to follow and they approached the author in 2009 to help set up GAIL Super 30 in Kanpur. The success of GAIL Super 30 galvanised other PSUs which too sought the help of Abhayanand for establishing Super 30 as part of their CSR activities. “This was the beginning of a long list of CSRL Super 30s, the count of which I fail to keep,” he writes in the book.
After his retirement in 2014 Abhayanand has devoted “all (his) time in teaching” which he does out of passion and without any monetary rewards or involvement. Indeed, he has never charged a single paisa for his time and efforts from any of the various Super 30s which have been nurtured and have flourished under his guidance. And each year more and more students successfully compete in the tough entrance test of IITs and NITs. And each year a few dozen families witness a sea change in their economic status. This noble and silent revolution surely was not an “interregnum” in the life of Abhayanand. It is rather the crowning glory of his life.
Conclusion
It is expected that a book review would also have some critical observations about the book. It has been hard though to find points to be critical of in a memoir which has been so rich and so diverse. However, the one aspect which did strike was the lack of any humour in the book. Surely, there would have been enough humorous episodes during Abhayanand’s long stint in police. A few instances of “Humour in Uniform” could have made this book livelier and more interesting. Humour after all does play an important role in human life. This minor blemish apart, this book stands out as a memoir and is likely to be widely read and appreciated.
(Rituraj is a retired IPS officer of Bihar cadre. He joined service in 1983 and sought voluntary retirement in 2005 after which he worked with Tata Steel for 5 years. Bitten by the travel bug he bid goodbye to the corporate world and spent the next four years driving around the country and finally settled down to a quiet, retired life in his village. He now shuttles between Mumbai and his village in Bihar.)
